Nintendo also wins at advertising

Nintendo has made a business of manufacturing money printing machines, but how has it done in marketing those machines to people? Well, as you can guess from the title of this post, the company hasn't done too badly.

Phoenix Marketing International's Travel and Leisure Division conducted its Video Game Advertising Performance Index (AdPi) Audit and found Nintendo was the only gaming company in Q4 of 2008 to earn above average AdPi scores. The score, which determines effectiveness and impact in all three media categories (print, television and digital), shows that Nintendo has done a pretty good job of pushing its wares on the populace.

The highest-rated ads were:

TV: Nintendo's Wii Music; and Activision's Call of Duty: World at War
Print: Nintendo's Wii Fit; Disney Interactive's Disney Think Fast; and MTV Games' Rock Band 2
Digital: Nintendo's Wii Music; Activision's Call of Duty: World at War; and Ubisoft's The Price is Right

In order to gauge the effectiveness of an ad, consumers were asked if they would buy the game, if the ad was worth watching again, and if the ad was inspiring or worth talking about. Well, we know of at least one ad that definitely fits the bill.

Reader Comments (8)

In order of marketing skillz in the UK (in my opinion) from best to worst:
Microsoft>Nintendo>Sony

MS wins because it appears to the casual market that all the fascinating HD games such as Mirror's Edge and Fallout 3 are only on 360 because of MS's clever use of advertising.

Nintendo try to show that people of all ages can enjoy gaming together and their adverts seem to revolve around a family lifestyle.

Sony- ????? I remember seeing a couple of LBP adverts on TV a couple of months ago but nothing else tbh. Their marketing division need to go back to basics- just show KZ2's amazing graphics and advertise their free PSN more.

NInty and MS- Advertising win!!!!
Sony- Advertising disaster

I rarely see Nintendo's ads.. Course, obviously as an ad student, I know I shouldn't be because the ads are not for my demographic.

And I wouldn't say Sony's marketing is BAD per say.. It's just.. They know their players use the internet to get ALL information, thus, word of mouth and Press Releases at gaming sites will be the most effective.

At least that's my opinion. My idea of what Sony's demographic is could be off, but I'm pretty sure it's internet savvy players.

Sony's marketing is god-awful. The only time I ever remember seeing a PS3 ad was during the Launch period, reminiscent of Silent Hill with it's Living Baby Doll. *groan*

Nintendo's is pretty good, though extremely generic at this point. 1 Woman, 1 Teenage Girl, both waggling standing up beside their couch, as the Dad sits on it and watches. Sound familiar?

I don't remember any ads for the Xbox 360, but it seems that Microsoft prefers to put "ONLY FOR XBOX(360)", rather than advertise the actual system, which is smart. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 need to advertise the games, since that's what they have going for them (the Wii has it's control scheme), so another Minus for Sony.

"1 Woman, 1 Teenage Girl, both waggling standing up beside their couch, as the Dad sits on it and watches. Sound familiar?"

Ew.

And what about the dissapointment, where the Wii just sits there gathering dust.. I might of had 2 months use of Wii Sports, 3 plays of Red Steel.. completed that DBZ2 played Brawl & Kart for a bit.. and I've had the console since lauch.. yet my 360 has been on most nights since the November Gears of War came out, It had disc drive faliure so the Wii got a months use there (Wii Sports/Play)..

A mix of 360 and Wii... that doesn't sound like disappointment. That just sounded like you expected the Wii to feed your every want and need.

...I'm not sure why people set their sights so high. I mean, I can make my Wii feed my wants and needs even without my other systems (due to my wider taste) - but I knew it wouldn't have games that were in the 360 and PS3 (Hell, I was surprised how unique some of the Xbox's games were compared to the PS2). And in that fashion, I'm not disappointed at all that I'm spending some time with my other systems right now...

...mind you, I'm saddened that I didn't get HotD:Overkill on launch. But hell, I'm saddened I didn't get a lot of games on launch on the other systems.

i love my Wii360: when my daughter is in the mood for toons & there isn't any on the tube i put on da 360's netflix or the dL'd toons & hop unto my Wii for HoD: Overkill or surf youtube from it or Ghost Squad lately. When she playing WiiMusic I hop back unto Gears/Halo & recently Artoon & CarneyVale Showtime... as for commercials... Wii had the best "hook" with Wii like to play... 360 only had the in my opinion Gears 1 & Halo 3 commercials that really caught ppl. PS3 just had the really weird ads when i saw em. i mean WEIRD. definitely Wii like to play won on that.

And how about those ads for Metroid Prime 3 last year...wow...wait..whats that? There weren't any? I had to have previous knowledge/excitement about the game in order to be convinced to buy it? Especially against the other triple A title Halo 3? Yeah...Nintendo sent that one out to die. alone. in the rain.

Nintendo also wins at advertising

Reader Comments (8)

Posted: Feb 19th 2009 3:20PM joeymoto said

Posted: Feb 19th 2009 3:40PM hami83 said

Posted: Feb 19th 2009 5:49PM Shoyz said

Posted: Feb 19th 2009 9:35PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Feb 19th 2009 10:29PM Mazrael said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 12:13AM blahblah55 said

Posted: Feb 20th 2009 10:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 21st 2009 8:44AM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW